Because I’m a human and a good Christian, I’m hosting a nice wee Christmas party this year which I have just bought a new sofa for (after promising myself that this is the last time I spend any more Bitcoin air money). The thing is, I’m supposed to have shopped and at least started decorating for this two days ago. Added to that:

I currently have the worlds worst case of writer hair

Don’t currently own anything decent to wear

Possibly have forgotten how to cook

Have increasingly limited time to rectify any of this because people keep ordering massive amounts of work

Now, I can barrel through the next 24-hours. The thing is, there is no way I’m working Christmas Eve, Day or the day after. But what do I do?

If I edit gig delivery times, gigs die because of editing

If I use vacation mode, all my gigs dissappear for about 30-days

If sales drop off as a result of any of the above, lower sales volumes might mean that my all green stats start reducing back toward demotion territory

I’m actually thinking of just telling regulars not to order and cancelling orders that do come in over Chiristmas itself. - I’m pretty sure that I can take the hit as far as stats go. What, however, is everyone else doing?

I have a new strategy for this which I am trialing for a longer period but in the short (2-3 day) periods I have tested it for, it has worked well - ie not caused the gig to drop off.
When I have enough orders in queue, I pause the gig(s) for a while and then reactivate them just before delivering the order. This stops too many coming in and makes it easier to plan. A lot of my orders are 10-30 day orders though so not sure if it would work for everyone.

I have some good news there. If you edit the text of your gig description yes you disappear for review. If you simply tweak only your price or delivery time, then it slides by. They are checking to see if you have written anything untoward or added a link that should not be there. At least the last 2 times I edited my gigs it worked that way. Tomorrow, I am editing 3 day delivery to 10 to not work on Christmas either.

I have some good news there. If you edit the text of your gig description yes you disappear for review. If you simply tweak your price or delivery time, then it slides by. They are checking to see if you have written anything untoward or added a link that should not be there. At least the last 2 times I edited my gigs it worked that way. Tomorrow, I am editing 3 day delivery to 10 to not work on Christmas either.

Just sayin…

If you are right about this I love you and hate you. I have been wanting to edit prices alone on my main gig for months now. I could have made millions!

Seriously, though, this is a huge help. Now I’ll simply edit delivery times on everything but my main gig (as I still don’t want to touch that) and leave the rest to a bit verbal slapping of anyone inconsiderate enough to order.

All hail @newsmike for saving Christmas. The Santa force is strong with this one.

I do have a 3rd gig active all the time just to test stuff. Has worked that way so far for me. I have my fingers crossed. Of course you still have to answer messages within 24 hours, but i will have an auto respond for the phone that says, Gone fishing will respond next week.

The only other thing I do is uncheck express delivery, but that has been ok so far as well.

I haven’t used vacation mode since the new metrics changes but you’ll still get penalised if you don’t respond in time I’d imagine. I’ve got a (polite) canned response letting them know I’m back on X date and if they still need my assistance then will gladly oblige. The app is always with me when I’m out and about so I always aim to respond to messages immediately (if I’m awake) , especially these days.

Vacation mode
I used this option 2 months back for 4 days and it did not affect my ranking, sales etc when. I changed the price and the sales are down from that day, same as misscrystal says, the impression is 200-500 on mine.